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Global Glimpses

“Global Glimpses” follows compliance, risk, and corporate governance news both in Europe and around the world. It covers developments at the International Accounting Standards Board, as well as global regulation, anti-bribery, and corruption enforcement, along with other compliance developments abroad. Global Glimpses is written by contributor Paul Hodgson. Hodgson welcomes questions, comments, and statements from readers on global issues and will address them here when appropriate. Readers can contact him at paul.hodgson@complianceweek.com.

The European Commission on July 24 fined four consumer electronics makers for imposing fixed or minimum resale prices on their online retailers in breach of EU competition rules. The more than €111 million in fines were in all four cases significantly reduced due to the companies' cooperation with the Commission.

The European Commission adopted on June 20 a regulation putting in place the EU’s rebalancing measures in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. The measures will immediately target a list of products worth €2.8 billion (U.S. $3.2 billion) and will come into effect on June 22.

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Iran Nuclear Deal, the European Commission on May 18 announced steps to preserve the interests of European companies investing in Iran and to demonstrate the EU’s commitment to the deal.

Social media companies—Facebook, Twitter, and Google+—need to do more to respond to requests made last March by the European Commission and member states' consumer authorities to comply with EU consumer protection rules.

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached an agreement on amendments to a fifth revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, proposed by the European Commission last year. The revised Directive covers virtual currencies and anonymous pre-paid instruments and introduces enhanced safeguards for financial flows from high-risk countries, among other changes.

In a report published this week, the Bank of England warned that Brexit poses “significant risks” to U.K. financial services companies, while also declaring publicly for the first time that LIBOR poses a financial stability risk.

The Panama Papers document leak shed much light on a deep and pervasive effort to evade taxes. Since then, the European Union has passed a number of new rules to improve tax transparency and close tax loopholes. According to CW’s Paul Hodgson, the EU is only just getting started.

The European Commission has proposed rules requiring multinational companies currently active in the EU’s single market with a permanent presence in the European Union and with a turnover in excess of EUR 750 million a year to disclose publicly the income tax they pay within the European Union, country by country. “The fight against tax avoidance is a key priority of this Commission,” Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president for the Euro and Social Dialogue, said.

A draft transatlantic data transfer framework approved in February by the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce received a less-than-enthusiastic response from EU data protection authorities in an opinion released today, effectively giving U.S. companies little assurance as to how they can legally transfer personal data from Europe into the United States.

The European Medicines Agency and the European Commission have published a plan to prevent falsified medicines from entering the market. The regulation introduces two safety features: a unique identifier and an anti-tampering device to be placed on the packaging of most medicines. “The safety features will help protect European citizens against the threat of falsified medicines, which may contain ingredients, including active ingredients, which are of low quality or in the wrong dosage and could potentially put patients’ health at risk,” EMA said.

The European Commission has proposed a one-year extension to the implementation date of its revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, better known as MiFID II, a comprehensive slate of unified regulations across member states for securities markets and investment firms. The new date will be Jan. 3, 2018. The delay “is to take account of the exceptional technical implementation challenges faced by regulators and market participants,” a statement says.

A new system adopted by the European Commission that went into force last week considerably reduces the administrative burden for companies that want to have a fair shake at winning a public contract. According to the European Commission, simplification of the tender procedure is just one of the major elements of public procurement reform, which will enter into force on April 18, 2016.

The EU is considering delaying the release of a comprehensive regulation that will overhaul financial market rules. The delay comes amid mounting concerns that the legislation’s accompanying technologies may not be ready in time for the January 2017 start date. Due to the complexity of the rule, banks and other financial institutions may need extra time to put the appropriate systems in place. More inside.

Czech bankers are worried about new European rules that may pose systemic risks to countries across Europe. The legislation, which is currently being reviewed by the European Commission will cause big depositors and bondholders, instead of national regulators, to incur more losses. Bankers are worried that this could lead to destabilized banks and market volatility in some countries. Details inside.

MasterCard is once again in the spotlight, as the European Commission has swooped in on the company’s potential abuse of interchange fees. After a two-year investigation, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, “MasterCard is artificially raising the costs of card payments, which would harm consumers and retailers in the European Union.” More inside.

European regulators are urging banks to revamp their business models to reduce risk and enhance a culture of compliance. A joint report issued by the European Union’s banking, insurance, and market regulators says, “Despite numerous actions already taken by regulators and supervisors, both from prudential and consumer protection perspectives, recent misconduct incidents indicated that additional measures are needed to address and prevent conduct of business risks properly.” More inside.